Everybody wants to have a piece of Kishore Kumar

Even as Shoojit Sircar's film on the life, songs and art of Kishore Kumar written by Rensil D'Silva is put on hold, two other filmmakers have come forward to claim a part of Kishore's life.

Avant-garde director Sudhir Mishra is ready to make a Kishore Kumar epic. "My favourite filmmaker, and one of the primary influences on my life and career is Guru Dutt. However a film on his life seems difficult if not impossible. Guru Dutt has already borrowed chapters of his own life in Pyasa and Kagaz Ke Phool. Making a Kishore Kumar bio-pic would be a dream come true. No one knows the real Kishore."

Sudhir's problem is whom to cast as Kishore Kumar. Nagesh Kukunor has an answer to this. He wants to cast his favourite actor Shreyas Talpade as Kishore Kumar, for two reasons. Firstly Nagesh feels a Kishore Kumar bio-pic cannot be attempted with a star who has a strong image and secondly, Shreyas is a huge Kishore Kumar fan himself.

Nagesh thrives on Kishore Kumar songs and claims to know the obscurest of Kishore's songs. "And if it's a duet I only know the male portion by heart," chuckles Nagesh.

Nagesh wants to focus primarily on the music and songs of Kishore Kumar. His narrative would be propelled forward on the strength of Kishore Kumar's songs. Nagesh is in the process of acquiring the rights of the original KK evergreens.

The filmmaker has spent hours with Kishore's son Amit Kumar and wife Leena Chandavarkar who opened the vaults of their hearts and gave Nagesh enough anecdotes to make his bio-pic voluptuous and comprehensive. Interestingly, Kishore Kumar's immediate family has also had meetings with Shoojit Sircar who plans his own KK bio-pic after he completes his current assignments.

So, it's hard to make out which of the two projects the Ganguly parivar truly believes in. Or which would take off first. However Nagesh has an edge since he has already approached producers. Some time ago Nagesh had gone to Subhash Ghai with the proposal to make the KK biopic. The Showman, enthusiastic about the idea, thought such a mammoth project required a marquee name.

Sudhir Mishra disagrees. "You can't have an acknowledged superstar playing a personality whom generations know like a member of the household. On the other hand you can't make a big-budget bio-pic on Kishore Kumar unless you've a readymade audience. So it's a Catch 22 situation."

One possibility that Sudhir is willing to explore is to cast Kishore Kumar's younger son Sumit.Provided Sumit could act. "But then who ever thought Kishore Kumar could act, sing, dance, entertain, compose….all at the same time? His son must have inherited some of that talent," reasons Sudhir hopefully.